Monday, 31 August 2015

The nights are still quite light and I always enjoy the long daylight hours in summer. However I am mindful that September starts tomorrow and that the nights will quickly start to draw in. There is a poem which I learnt as a child at primary school about light summer nights but I can never remember the last verse. I decided to look it up and find that missing 3rd verse.

It is called Bed in Summer by R. L Stevenson and it reminds me of those daylight bedtimes you endure as a child in the summer when you think it is far too early to go to bed!

Here it is in its entirety.

Bed in SummerIn winter I get up at nightAnd dress by yellow candlelight.In summer quite the other way,I have to go to bed by day.I have to go to bed and seeThe birds still hopping on the treeAnd hear the grown-up peoples' feetStill going past me in the streetAnd does it not seem hard to youWhen all the sky is clear and blueAnd I should like so much to playTo have to go to bed by day?
I am so glad I found it and I have now learnt the last verse. Inspired by this vintage poem I decided that I would use it for some new art journal pages.
I looked around my garden and decided to use the bright floral colours still proudly showing off from my pots as the base colours.

My lawn has really greened up too with all the recent rain we have had. Off I went to my garden studio and I chose some really bright bold distress inks and made some inky pages;

I think sun glasses are needed here :0)

I then made the brave decision to try hand writing the poem using a Micron pen and white highlighter.

I also decided to add lots of doodles including a doodle frame inspired by Joanne Fink.

So here are my finished pages.

With some added strawberry stamping, some stencilling, Zenspirational dangles and my doodled frame with some Cheery Lynn die cuts.

These new pages in Jane's Journal will really make my heart sing even when it is cold and dark and winter is at its worst. I will be reminded of the summer colours of my garden, the warm summer sunshine and the long light evenings....and strawberry Pimm's ;0)........

The weather was on our side over the weekend and we enjoyed such a fun day out yesterday with our friends. We visited Standen in East Grinstead, West Sussex, such a gorgeous National Trust home. I will share some photos and a post really soon. Today the weather has other ideas and we woke up to heavy rain which has now eased but looks set to fall all day. However it's bank holiday Monday here in the UK so no work and as it needs to be an indoor kind of day. I am spending time in my garden...in my studio....crafting! Yippee!! Enjoy your day too.

Thursday, 27 August 2015

Although as I typed this post yesterday afternoon the rain was coming down in sheets, we have enjoyed some good sunny days in August. It's just easy to forget them when there is enough rain out there to build an arc!

I decided to write a sunshine filled post to remind us that we still have another month of summer left. I wanted to share with you a new variety of my favourite summer tipple which I noticed on the shelves of the supermarket recently. Pimm's bring out some new editions from time to time but I did not want to buy a whole bottle. I then noticed some in cans, ready made with lemonade. There was no excuse now not to try it. Obviously this found its way into my bag.

Mmm Pimm's with strawberry and a hint of mint ( and no I am not sponsored by them at all....I wish I was!)

There is nothing quite like a cold Pimm's on a hot day. I added ice, cucumber, a slice of lemon and a strawberry. We sat at our new garden table looking out into our tiny garden of delight and listened to the bees buzzing around as we relaxed and savoured the warmth of the sunshine. My Hb is not really a Pimm's fan.....he toasted the sunshine with a G&T.

My opinion on this variety.....it's very pleasant but to me nothing beats the original. However being able to buy this special edition in cans means that you don't have to buy a whole bottle just to have an occasional change. That's a win win in my books.

My card challenge today is also red/summer based and is a card I made for a 40th birthday.

Anything but cute making magic again I was inspired by all the gorgeous shimmering textures in the photos. I also think my flower with the heart brad looks like something from a fairy tale like Snow White...or is that just in my mad head?

Pixie's Snippet Playground week 191 here I used a snippet of ribbon on my card, I didn't have enough for a bow but still thought it added some shimmer to my card.

Fingers crossed that this biblical rain moves on in time for the upcoming bank holiday. We are meeting friends for a trip to a National Trust Property on Sunday and it would be lovely to stroll around the grounds as well as visiting the house.

Thanks for visiting and I would like to extend a very warm welcome to my newest followers. I really hope you enjoy following my creative journey here at Jane's Journal. I hope that today's post has reminded us that there is lots of sunshine around us.....even if it's not shining from the sky just at this moment.

Monday, 24 August 2015

My Hb and I recently celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary and I decided that I wanted to make some pages in my art journal to remember our special day. We spent 25th July at Scotney Castle in Lamberhurst, Kent, owned by the National Trust. The sun shone and we enjoyed a wandering around the house and grounds and a had a lovely picnic too.

Here are a few photos from our special day. The main house was built between 1835-1843 and replaced the cold damp original Scotney Castle. It was lived in until 2006 when it was given to the National Trust who opened it to the public in 2007. I visited it that same year and since then there has been lots of gorgeous renovation both of the house and grounds.

A few of the inside rooms

It stands in beautiful grounds looking down to the original castle. This was built in 1378 and occupied for 450 years until the new house was built. The original castle was left as a folly and a very spectacular folly it is too.

We sat in the grounds of the old castle and admired the beautiful flora and fauna.

The tree above and the photo below were our views from a bench where we sat at 3pm, the exact time of our wedding in 1981

and this little fellow walked over to wish us a happy anniversary.

This is the view looking back towards the house.

We had such a lovely day there and I was inspired to make some new pages in my Art Journal.I wanted lots of floral texture so I added die cuts and book pages to start.

I started to add green acrylics to represent all the gorgeous trees we saw

I also added some purples and pinks as these were the main colours in the gardens at the time of our visit.

I also stamped out my Tim Holtz flowers and watercoloured some of them with distress ink

So then it was time to put on my creative hat and make my journal pages.

Here they are. I am really loving adding doodles and Zenspirational dangles and ideas to my pages, inspired by the great Joanne Fink.

I decided to write some of the words, with a micron pen, of the marriage vows we made 34 years ago. Below are some close ups;

a close up of my "butterfly" tree with it's crackle and butterflies for leaves. These are an old MS punch.

and one last "arty" shot

I would like to enter my art journal pages into the following challenges;

Scrap around the world. I was inspired by the lovely textures of the footprint and waves on the beach photo and used these colours on the tree and butterflies with lots of crackle texture. I used an arrow inspired by the sign post photo and my words are inspiration to me just like those of "explore, dream and discover". My journal pages are each 6"x 8" as required .Artistic stamper anything goes

Anything but cute making magic again I was inspired by all the gorgeous textures in the photos.

Pixie's Snippets playground week 191 This is a new challenge I have found and really looks great fun. I certainly used lots of die snippets in my pages.

Thanks for visiting today me here today. My Hb and I so enjoyed our anniversary. Now when I look at my pages in my journal I can relive that wonderful July day we shared.

We enjoyed at great day on the beach this Saturday with Daisy and Co.....such a sunny day but yesterday the rain returned so we were very lucky indeed. I have plans for some more art journal pages from the day....stay tuned ;0)

Thursday, 20 August 2015

A couple of weekends ago my daughter and son-in-law held their annual family Bar B Q in their garden. For all but 1 of the year's they have always managed to pick a Saturday with glorious sunshine. This year was no exception, the sky was the clearest blue and the sun shone from dawn to dusk. They invite their very immediate family down and are such brilliant hosts to us all.

I love the attention to detail they both have...how pretty are these simple displays on the table.

My Hb helped with some last minute moving of planters and then they were ready for 16 hungry guests.

After demolishing a delicious meal we sat around chatting and catching up with everyone. Daisy loved pottering around with Bear for company.

We had such a wonderful day.

I decided that I wanted to make one of my Moments to remember our day and one photo I took which I really loved is the one below of my son, daughter and Daisy. It's very rare that I get photo of the 3 of them and I love this happy shot.

I also wanted to enter a couple of fun challenges. Scrap around the world, Dusty Attic and Rubber Dance all have gorgeous August mood boards to inspire so I used all of them plus my memories of the colours of the happy sunny day to make my background. I gessoed (I'm not sure if that is a verb but it is to me!) my background. I die cut my photo with a stitched rectangle Memory box die.

Paperartsy have asked us to have a play with gels and mediums so I got out my soft gloss gel to play with.

I stuck some strips of paper to my base and added a thin base of green and cream watery Fresco paints using baby wipes. I added some yellow acrylic paint to the gloss gel. I wiped it on to the card with a palette knife and pulled it into peaks,

I added beads and glitter for sparkle...I wanted to represent the sunshine

I didn't take any more photos as it all got pretty inky but you can see that I then dripped down some watered down Fresco paints. This reminded me of the gorgeous gerbenas on the table. I added lots of different elements and had such fun recreating the day and using the mood boards for inspiration.

So this is what I ended up with and I think this is one of my favourite Moments I have made...perhaps because of the gorgeous photo of all 3 of my babies ;0) As always it is so hard to photograph and show the sparkle the gel, sprinkles and glitter has given to it.

Here are some close ups

of course daisies were a natural choice for my Daisy Jane

and here you can see the crackle on my weathered clock die cut

I would like to enter my Moment into the following fun August challenges.

I used the lovely textures of the beach photo by using gel medium with yellow acrylic paint and sprinkles in for my texture. I also was inspired to use my sign post chippie by the signpost photo on the mood board. My Moment measures 9"X 9"

PaperArtsy use gels and mediums I used my gloss gel for the very first time and really had fun adding things to it. I was inspired to play by Leandra's introductory video.

Rubber dance Rubber dance....August challenge I think my colours match the photo inspiration and I even went along with the additional theme of in the garden.

It's almost time for another weekend.We are visiting our daughter and family on Saturday and we hope to get out for a long sea or country side walk after lunch.

Enjoy your weekend and thanks as always for your kind visits and comments. I love reading every one of them and it thrills me that my blog and artwork can bring even a little ray of sunshine to those who stop by and read Jane's Journal. Thank you also for the fun comments you left for my Tim tag I shared, I really chuckled reading them and when my Dad has celebrated his birthday in late September I'll tell him to read them ;0)

108 High St, Carshalton, Surrey, SM5 3AE Gorgeous painting is by in house artist Karen Baker

My Pinterest page

Sharing all my latest work

Email me

janesgems@btinternet.com

Copyright

All the content of my blog, Jane's Journal including my photographs, cards and jewellery designs are copyrighted to me. Please respect this and do not copy or use my work. If you wish to link to my work please contact me first.

Thank you

About Me

Welcome to Jane's Journal. Having worked for the NHS as a physiotherapist for 34 years I now follow a crafting life selling my handmade cards in Dotty's, a local vintage tea room. My passions are as a papercrafter, silversmith, jewellery maker, and occasional cake decorator. I am a Design Team Member for Country View Crafts, Visible Image and STAMPlorations. I enjoy occasional Guest Designing for other stamp companies/card challenges. My work has been published and appeared on TV. I am also a keen photographer and gardener.
I am the wife of a very dear husband and have 2 wonderful grown up children (but always my babies to me). Our lives have been blessed by the arrival of our 2 darling grandchildren; Daisy Jane, in 2013 and Jack in 2017. We also have a very special cat called Billy who shares our home.
My blog is written to share my hobbies, crafts and gardening and to create a journal I can look back on. Thanks for visiting me here and watching my creative journey.
Please don't be shy - do leave a comment and say hello, it's great to realise that I'm not rambling to myself but even if you don't wish to just pull up a chair, make yourself comfy and have a read.
Jane x